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Louis Cranston was believed to have participated with his father's troop in many a pitched battle with the savage foe before his tenth birthday, and "Patchie," the younger, was known to be so called not because of his mother's having sprung from the distinguished family in which George Patchen was a patron saint, but because he had been born in the Arizona mountains and rocked in a Tonto cradle.
It was soon after guard mount next day that two runners from Sandy had come in, weary and hungry. "'Patchie sign todas partes," said the leader, after delivering his despatch. But he, too, was half Apache and had squirmed through without mishap. For two hours after reading Archer kept the contents to himself. The adjutant-general wished to consult him at Prescott.
"I only give him five dollars a month, even now, and he could get twenty, and unlimited monte, at the store; besides, he is mortal 'fraid of these 'Patchie Mohaves; hell knows why, and hides when he sees 'em coming."
An adobe wall, some seven feet high, surrounded the corral, and beneath the canvas awning on the southern side certain offenders against the peace and dignity of Yavapai County had been assembled under the eye of tobacco-chewing deputies. There were the Sanchez half-brothers, 'Patchie and José, both shackled. There was Muñoz, similarly decked.
"Oh, you'll be glad, I'm betting!" was the answer, half-rueful, half-relieved, for somehow Strong had "taken to" the doctor's guest and to doubting his own. "Those galoots at McDowell let up on their watch, and 'Tonio's walked off 'gone where the woodbine twineth' 'Patchie Sanchez with him!"
Then there were Steele and Kelly from Wickenberg and Date Creek, and Strong was to come up from Almy, bringing with him in chains the desperado, 'Patchie Sanchez, secreted by his own people when charged with the killing of the interpreter, but tamely sold when a price was set on his head.
"Here's your pistol, Colt's 44; every chamber loaded and ready for business. You'll use a different belt when you've been a month in Arizona and you'll shed top boots for 'Patchie moccasins. Let me help you, Willett. You're a bit blown.
How do I know it?" he demanded, in the midst of his excited harangue. "Sanchez told me 'Patchie Sanchez, the runner, last night. No night before, or some night. Right here, I thought; right here where you all heard! He said they'd ordered him ironed in Prescott for telling the truth, and he said the sergeant had orders to flog him with a bull-whip, and he killed the man that tried to flog him.
Willett's pistol was the only thing recovered, even with such aid as could be rendered by some of the Sanchez party, Muñoz and José being most energetic in their aid "'Patchie" Sanchez being, of course, nowhere visible. 'Patchie had affairs of his own to answer for and explain against the homeward coming of the Big Chief Crook, and was shy of Saxon society in consequence.
It was the corporal who called to his halting and anxious fellows: "It's Bennett's Ranch! His dago's in with the news mos' dead down there on Number Four; says they've killed the whole family 'Patchie Mohaves!" There was awed silence one moment. Then a deep voice broke it, and all eyes turned on the speaker. 'Tonio. "Apache Mohave? No! No!!"
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